At the time of the intrusion Kretsinger, who used the online alias "recursion," was a member of a hacker group called Lulz Security, or LulzSec, that went on a hacking spree during the first half of 2011. The group was affiliated with the international Anonymous hacktivist collective.

* AU Optronics executive sentenced for LCD price-fixing A former executive with AU Optronics was sentenced in April to serve two years in prison and pay a $50,000 fine for participating in a worldwide LCD screen price-fixing conspiracy, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Shiu Lung Leung, former senior manager of AU Optronics' desktop display business group, was sentenced for price fixing in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. AU Optronics, based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and its U.S. subsidiary, AU Optronics America, headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., were found guilty in March 2012, for participating in the thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) price-fixing conspiracy, after an eight-week trial.

Cristian Busca, who was sentenced in U.S. District Court in New Haven, Conn., pleaded guilty last November to one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, the DOJ said in a news release. He was extradited to the U.S. in December 2011. Prosecutors alleged that Busca possessed more than 10,000 stolen debit or credit card numbers in his email accounts.

Busca was part of a group based in Craiova, Romania, that amassed victims' payment card details, PINs and Social Security numbers. They used the information to make fraudulent withdrawals from people's accounts by creating counterfeit payment cards and taking out lines of credit.

Found guilty in November of 2012, 26-year-old Auernheimer's prison sentence is likely to become only the latest contentious chapter in complex story that has sharply divided opinion. As part of the 'Goatse Security' group, Auernheimer styled himself as a security researcher who did nothing more untoward than reveal a weakness on AT&T's website that was of its own making.